Skip Class(ninjasandrobots.com)
ninjasandrobots.com
Skip Class
http://ninjasandrobots.com/skip-class/
29 comments
I really liked skipping class. Once I made that decision to skip and go back to sleep, it was the greatest sleep I could possibly have.
It definitely wasn't a good decision though. I wasted a lot of money and probably missed an opportunity to major in something valuable rather than something that would just get me by.
It definitely wasn't a good decision though. I wasted a lot of money and probably missed an opportunity to major in something valuable rather than something that would just get me by.
Opposite anecdote for you...
I skipped class, a lot. So much so that I nearly got kicked out of (a red brick) university in the UK. Up in front of the dean and everything. I was too busy reselling and refurbishing Unix kit and installing network kit and cabling. Oh and like yourself, sleeping when I desired :)
After a year, I quit my electrical engineering degree anyway much to the disappointment of my entire family.
I don't regret this for a minute.
Firstly, most of the entire higher education system in the UK is a scam. It was primarily an exercise in shutting up and sucking cock which I really can't stand for. I'm not willing to trade my ethics and morals for an education.
Secondly, prospects are terribly inflated. None of my peers are employed in that sector as it's cheaper to get your designs and production knocked up in the far east. All of them have a shit ton of debt, even after 15 years and are way down the ladder in their respective industries. At best, they're just about breaking even at the end of the month. The university in questoin is still selling the same course with false promises at the end.
My practical knowledge and experience over the years turned out to be more valuable than the education would have been.
Obviously I make no recommendation but higher education was a social event and business building opportunity for me.
I skipped class, a lot. So much so that I nearly got kicked out of (a red brick) university in the UK. Up in front of the dean and everything. I was too busy reselling and refurbishing Unix kit and installing network kit and cabling. Oh and like yourself, sleeping when I desired :)
After a year, I quit my electrical engineering degree anyway much to the disappointment of my entire family.
I don't regret this for a minute.
Firstly, most of the entire higher education system in the UK is a scam. It was primarily an exercise in shutting up and sucking cock which I really can't stand for. I'm not willing to trade my ethics and morals for an education.
Secondly, prospects are terribly inflated. None of my peers are employed in that sector as it's cheaper to get your designs and production knocked up in the far east. All of them have a shit ton of debt, even after 15 years and are way down the ladder in their respective industries. At best, they're just about breaking even at the end of the month. The university in questoin is still selling the same course with false promises at the end.
My practical knowledge and experience over the years turned out to be more valuable than the education would have been.
Obviously I make no recommendation but higher education was a social event and business building opportunity for me.
The problem is I rather use my internship to substitute course credit and my department won't let me do that. To be honest, why not. To me credits, diploma is just business. I would be working with a tech giant and my internship will be better than whatever class I was going to take. There are classes I love to take but either I don't time or I just don't trust the person teaching it (they just not very good at conveying material to students).
Again, different people learn (and enjoy learning) in different ways. Not sure why the title of this post is the directive "skip class" and not "I skipped some classes and did some other stuff and still made elementary mistakes at my start-up, so that worked out."
Rather than go to class I created a popular custom discussion forum for students to help each other with the homework problems (back in the early 2000's). Ended up teaching myself perl, html, css, javascript and sql in the process which landed me my first job. Never had to do my physics homework (useless busywork) because the answers were posted on the forum. Still received grades of B+ or higher.
wow, why the downvote? I'm very proud of the website I created. It was what got me started with programming and lit a fire under me to learn new programming languages. I don't share much on HN but a downvote to this post makes me want to refrain from ever sharing.
>>wow, why the downvote?
Because of this: "Never had to do my physics homework (useless busywork) because the answers were posted on the forum."
Because of this: "Never had to do my physics homework (useless busywork) because the answers were posted on the forum."
[Original message removed due to another downvote. I guess I will not share personal anecdotes anymore. I feel that downvotes are for off topic or mean comments. I only shared a personal experience that I felt related to the OP's story.]
Sharing personal anecdotes is fine. You however seemed to be espousing cheating the system. You didn't go to class, and instead built this collaboration system (which is awesome) but then used it to cheat (not so awesome).
> You however seemed to be espousing cheating the system.
Doesn't that sound similar to hacking the system? We are using a website called hacker news. Not only was collaboration on homework encouraged, but the class actually had its own discussion forum for people to use. However, everyone disliked the forum because it was cumbersome and slow. So I built my own. At the end of the semester I had many people thank me for the website and asked to have it expanded to cover more classes. Using this forum I personally helped many students understand concepts and taught concepts that the professors couldn't teach properly. There were a few subjects I didn't understand and other students stepped in to help. You were not in my class and did not use this forum so I don't think you should rush to judgement about what was/wasn't cheating.
By definition, hackers do things that push boundaries. There will always be disagreement but you don't have to downvote just because you disagree. Voice your opinion, certainly, but please be careful with those downvotes.
Doesn't that sound similar to hacking the system? We are using a website called hacker news. Not only was collaboration on homework encouraged, but the class actually had its own discussion forum for people to use. However, everyone disliked the forum because it was cumbersome and slow. So I built my own. At the end of the semester I had many people thank me for the website and asked to have it expanded to cover more classes. Using this forum I personally helped many students understand concepts and taught concepts that the professors couldn't teach properly. There were a few subjects I didn't understand and other students stepped in to help. You were not in my class and did not use this forum so I don't think you should rush to judgement about what was/wasn't cheating.
By definition, hackers do things that push boundaries. There will always be disagreement but you don't have to downvote just because you disagree. Voice your opinion, certainly, but please be careful with those downvotes.
Cheating is not a boundary that deserves to be pushed & rewarded :/ .
"Doesn't that sound similar to hacking the system?"
Ha. No. The system is designed to make you learn about physics, in this case. You did not learn about physics. You actually hacked the system to take your time and money and not give you a good result.
Kind of a dumb hack, if you ask me.
Ha. No. The system is designed to make you learn about physics, in this case. You did not learn about physics. You actually hacked the system to take your time and money and not give you a good result.
Kind of a dumb hack, if you ask me.
>You actually hacked the system to take your time and money and not give you a good result.
And what if I earned 100% on the 2 midterms and a 94% on the final? I got a 96% in that physics class. Other students told me that their exam grades improved after starting to use the forum. Not sure how I didn't get a good result. Again, I'd like to say that rushing to judgement of other people's situations isn't beneficial to anyone. I feel as though my initial post was very on topic and was kind of hurt when it was downvoted within a few minutes. We're all here to help and support each other.
By the way, I'm new to posting on HN and am wondering how you made your text italics?
And what if I earned 100% on the 2 midterms and a 94% on the final? I got a 96% in that physics class. Other students told me that their exam grades improved after starting to use the forum. Not sure how I didn't get a good result. Again, I'd like to say that rushing to judgement of other people's situations isn't beneficial to anyone. I feel as though my initial post was very on topic and was kind of hurt when it was downvoted within a few minutes. We're all here to help and support each other.
By the way, I'm new to posting on HN and am wondering how you made your text italics?
Surround something in asterisks for italics. :-)
You're assuming that a particular grade is a good result. It's an issue I think a lot of students have -- I certainly did. And it's not exactly the fault of students... The whole system seems geared towards the "good grade = success" metric. It's a weird kind of institutional laziness.
I don't know your specific situation, and I also don't really care if you cheated in your class and still got an A. And I'm happy that you got some programming skills out of it! But -- as someone who now teaches at a couple of universities -- I want students to be engaged, to not treat the work cynically, and to actually do the work I assign. As a professor, I am not only more experienced than you, but I know a lot you don't know. Trust me. That's why they hired me. If you consider the class nothing but useless busy-work, get out of the class. An engaged student who tries hard and gets a C is preferable to a student who does show up, cheats, and gets a A. That C is way more respectable than the A and the C student should take more pride in it than the A student. (And it's sad that our system doesn't really allow that.)
Don't get confused about what the actual goal of education is.
You're assuming that a particular grade is a good result. It's an issue I think a lot of students have -- I certainly did. And it's not exactly the fault of students... The whole system seems geared towards the "good grade = success" metric. It's a weird kind of institutional laziness.
I don't know your specific situation, and I also don't really care if you cheated in your class and still got an A. And I'm happy that you got some programming skills out of it! But -- as someone who now teaches at a couple of universities -- I want students to be engaged, to not treat the work cynically, and to actually do the work I assign. As a professor, I am not only more experienced than you, but I know a lot you don't know. Trust me. That's why they hired me. If you consider the class nothing but useless busy-work, get out of the class. An engaged student who tries hard and gets a C is preferable to a student who does show up, cheats, and gets a A. That C is way more respectable than the A and the C student should take more pride in it than the A student. (And it's sad that our system doesn't really allow that.)
Don't get confused about what the actual goal of education is.
Thanks for teaching me the italics trick! I promise, I love to learn!
I agree with most of what you said. In fact, it's due to a few of my classes (especially that physics class) that I'd like to become a professor some day. I want to teach kids much better than those few terrible professors I had to learn from (I had no other choice in teacher).
> If you consider the class nothing but useless busy-work, get out of the class.
Trust me, if I could have I would have. Unfortunately these classes were prereq's for the classes (and major) that I cared about. I knew the material well enough to get decent grades and didn't care beyond that. I would have gladly traded a seat for a student who cared (especially a student who couldn't afford to go to college!)
I agree with most of what you said. In fact, it's due to a few of my classes (especially that physics class) that I'd like to become a professor some day. I want to teach kids much better than those few terrible professors I had to learn from (I had no other choice in teacher).
> If you consider the class nothing but useless busy-work, get out of the class.
Trust me, if I could have I would have. Unfortunately these classes were prereq's for the classes (and major) that I cared about. I knew the material well enough to get decent grades and didn't care beyond that. I would have gladly traded a seat for a student who cared (especially a student who couldn't afford to go to college!)
I still think this is an abuse of down-vote priviledges... downvote should be used to bury non-constructive comments, not express disagreement with a point or behavior. (That's what comments are for.)
When people say "I need a job in X, to learn Y, before starting Z," do you think they actually mean it?
I understand that sometimes it's necessary. But most of the time, I think people ask use this excuse to take the less risky path.
I understand that sometimes it's necessary. But most of the time, I think people ask use this excuse to take the less risky path.
I enjoyed reading your post. I also struggle to get up to listen to a professor go over material at a very slow pace. I'm taking a class now and I only show up on the day before the exam and on the exam. There are 2-3 weeks of lectures before an exam.. Usually 5-7 hours of studying is enough to get me a B+.
I'm not saying everyone should do that. But I'm running my startup and my CS degree isn't getting me anywhere closer to being a success story. The things I've learned by "doing" are probably the equivalent of getting CS and MBA degrees.
I'm not saying everyone should do that. But I'm running my startup and my CS degree isn't getting me anywhere closer to being a success story. The things I've learned by "doing" are probably the equivalent of getting CS and MBA degrees.
So you're majoring in hubris then?
Don't know about his specific case, but after a couple years (at most) of undergrad, you quickly learn how to tell which classes are the ones you'll actually need to attend. You'll pick out the profs who just teach 95% off the slides and textbooks, and which ones actually have useful lectures.
If you're willing to risk that 5-10% 'oh shit, professor included that one unique thing he taught in class that wasn't included in the textbook/slides' on your examination, then you really can usually blow off the lecture and learn at your own pace. And really, its liberating. You can focus on the classes and projects that you enjoy, and are getting the most out of, and still pass all your other classes.
It has nothing to do with hubris (at least in my case), but a combined case of just enough confidence and self-respect. I did not pay 6000 a term to attend inane, information sparse lectures. 90 minute lectures which can be successfully condensed into 15 minutes by your TAs are not worth my time. I've already been burned once by being forced to take these lectures (and paying for it!), I'm not going to let to burn me again by suffering through the opportunity cost in time and mental stability.
If you're willing to risk that 5-10% 'oh shit, professor included that one unique thing he taught in class that wasn't included in the textbook/slides' on your examination, then you really can usually blow off the lecture and learn at your own pace. And really, its liberating. You can focus on the classes and projects that you enjoy, and are getting the most out of, and still pass all your other classes.
It has nothing to do with hubris (at least in my case), but a combined case of just enough confidence and self-respect. I did not pay 6000 a term to attend inane, information sparse lectures. 90 minute lectures which can be successfully condensed into 15 minutes by your TAs are not worth my time. I've already been burned once by being forced to take these lectures (and paying for it!), I'm not going to let to burn me again by suffering through the opportunity cost in time and mental stability.
Maybe this helps explains why a B+ isn't worth anything any more.
I skipped many of my undergrad classes to do more important stuff, and I'd go back and do it again. I showed up for the important stuff, and attended lectures that actually taught me things, but quickly figured out that just because a professor tells you you have to show up doesn't mean that it's not your judgement call any more. Most successful and highly motivated students figure out this sort of a scheme for skipping busywork and pedantry.
Maybe if more students were as self-motivated as this guy I wouldn't have those two or three students every semester who do go to class and still don't follow directions no matter how often I go over them.
I'm not sure what the author is implying here. Is it that figuring stuff out on your own and learning it from others are mutually exclusive? Surely it's better to do both.
I like class.
Sadly, the classes I most wanted to skip were the ones where you'd get flunked for a single unexcused absence.
This kind of post pop up once in a while here, some guy tells the experience about skipping classes or dropping out of school. If that works for you, great! But I am actually one of those guys that could happily get back to school if I could afford it.
School gave me so many things: My wife, my first job, my first client, etc. I could connect my dots back and everything started from the three different occasions I had been enrolled in three different universities. Should you skip class and doing it great? Sure! But your mileage may vary.